Brazil to produce 1.12 bil liters/yr biodiesel by 2008: official

Rio de Janeiro (Platts)--16Mar2006

Brazil's alternative fuel producers are slated to produce more than 1.12
billion liters (296 million gallons) of biodiesel fuel in 2008, almost 40%
more than the estimated 800 million liters needed to mix into domestic diesel
fuel under Brazilian law by then, energy officials said.

At an energy conference Wednesday, government biodiesel committee chief
Rodrigo Rodrigues said the supplies would come from five currently operating
plants, and several dozen more that due to enter operation over the next two
years. Brazil's currently operational biodiesel plants have a combined annual
capacity of 80 million liters.

The biodiesel plants, which receive government licenses and fiscal
benefits for buying their plant feedstocks from small, rural farmers in
Brazil, are seeking to meet requirements for 2% biodiesel in the country's
diesel supply in 2008, or about 800 million liters, and 5% by 2013.

Biodiesel production, however, will still pale in comparison to the
country's output of sugar cane-based ethanol, its most prolific renewable
fuel. This year Brazil will produce 16 billion liters of ethanol, according to
industry estimates.

So far, diesel fuel containing the biodiesel mix, known as B2, is sold at
only about 80 service stations in Brazil, but Rodrigues said it would be
available at up to 1,000 service stations by the end of the year, as state oil
giant Petrobras invests heavily in its distribution ahead of 2008.

For more information, take a trial to Platts Petrochemical Report at
http://petrochemicalreport.platts.com .


 

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